EBMUD set back by Pardee Reservoir ruling

WATER POLICY

Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PDT, Monday, April 18, 2011

Mike Farrell, (left) and Robert Cheary, both from Mokelumne Hill, Ca., fish from the Middle Bar Bridge, on Thursday Jan. 27, 2011, in Jackson, Ca., which will be under water if the expansion of Pardee Reservoir is approved. A coalition of conservation and fishing groups has filed a lawsuit over the East Bay Municipal Utility District's plan to expand the Sierra Foothill's reservoir. less

Mike Farrell, (left) and Robert Cheary, both from Mokelumne Hill, Ca., fish from the Middle Bar Bridge, on Thursday Jan. 27, 2011, in Jackson, Ca., which will be under water if the expansion of Pardee Reservoir ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Mike Farrell, (left) and Robert Cheary, both from Mokelumne Hill, Ca., fish from the Middle Bar Bridge, on Thursday Jan. 27, 2011, in Jackson, Ca., which will be under water if the expansion of Pardee Reservoir is approved. A coalition of conservation and fishing groups has filed a lawsuit over the East Bay Municipal Utility District's plan to expand the Sierra Foothill's reservoir. less

Mike Farrell, (left) and Robert Cheary, both from Mokelumne Hill, Ca., fish from the Middle Bar Bridge, on Thursday Jan. 27, 2011, in Jackson, Ca., which will be under water if the expansion of Pardee Reservoir ... more

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

EBMUD set back by Pardee Reservoir ruling

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Officials with a Bay Area water utility will meet today to plot their next step after a Sacramento judge found that the agency's contentious plan to expand its mainstay reservoir in the Sierra Nevada foothills ignored the impacts to a picturesque kayak run, a historic bridge and sacred American Indian sites.

The East Bay Municipal Utility District had included the enlargement of Pardee Reservoir as part of a long-range effort to increase its water supply in times of drought. But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley last week threw out the 2009 environmental report on the grounds that it failed to adequately describe and weigh the project's harm to important local resources.

Opponents of the reservoir's expansion, who packed the agency's 2009 meeting on the report's approval, said the ruling should set the utility on a new track that doesn't involve diverting more water from the relatively small Mokelumne River watershed.

"We think they have plenty of storage on the Mokelumne already," said Chris Wright, executive director of the Foothill Conservancy, one of the groups that filed a lawsuit against the utility two years ago. "They need to find their drought water elsewhere - in conservation, storm water runoff or another reservoir."

The utility may discuss those options and more today in a special closed-door meeting on the case.

In its legal filings, the water agency had argued that it wasn't required to perform a detailed analysis of a larger Pardee Reservoir because it was one of several options the board is considering. The others include stepped up conservation, water recycling programs and increased efficiency.

According to its internal research, the water utility must be able to deliver water to about 400,000 more customers by 2040. To accomplish that, the utility said, it might need to broaden the reservoir's footprint by about 1,000 acres and flood about 2 miles of the Mokelumne River.

In addition to inundating the popular Electra and Middle Bar whitewater runs, the move would also destroy the 1912 Middle Bar Bridge and imperil a black willow stand where Miwok tribe members gather branches for weaving traditional baskets.

Frawley's 36-page opinion concluded that the agency overlooked a much more straightforward alternative - joining forces with the Contra Costa Water District, which is about to begin expansion work on Los Vaqueros Reservoir in eastern Contra Costa County. At the time of its report, the utility maintained that the outlook for the Los Vaqueros project was too uncertain.

"The Los Vaqueros project does not involve a new reservoir in a previously undeveloped area, does not involve significant historical community opposition, and would allow the district to partner with other agencies to jointly resolve water supply issues," the judge wrote in his ruling Wednesday.

Officials at the utility Monday would not comment on the suit other than to say they are reviewing Frawley's opinion and will consider their options.

EBMUD provides drinking water to 1.4 million customers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.